Classifying farming systems mapping food security and poverty reduction.

Growth in farm income and household food security has lagged behind the expectations of the 1996 World Food Summit, which committed to halving the number of the undernourished by 2015. Increases in agricultural productivity required to boost farm income and food security depend ultimately on farm management decisions in relation to choices of enterprises, production technologies and agricultural inputs, among others. This article considers farm management decisions and the usefulness of a farming systems framework created during the FAO/World Bank Global Farming Systems Study.

These management decisions are strongly influenced by the particular farming systems in which the household operates, as well as its individual circumstances. In fact, these two factors account for most of the observed variation in such decisions. Circumstances vary significantly even within any given broad farming system and also over the family life cycle of households. Within the one village there is generally a range of farm and household sizes that may still produce a similar range of agricultural products, albeit using different technologies. An understanding of the wide spectrum of farming systems that exist across the developing world can contribute to effective rural development strategies and agricultural development policies. Farm household systems and their immediate external rural environment, including local effects of policies and institutions, markets and information linkages, are interdependent and over time co-evolve in response to changes in population, markets, technologies, policies, institutions and information flows. (1)

Differences in the farming system account for a major part of the variation in farm management decisions. By adopting a livelihood approach to define farming systems--recognizing multiple sources of livelihoods, including cash crops, aquaculture, self-consumption and off-farm income--it is possible to consider the local institutional environment, including farm-gate price ratios, local markets, credit availability to farmers and arrangements for resource-sharing as an integral part of the local system. In this way, a large proportion of the variation within any particular country or region is represented by a classification of farming systems,

An ideal framework would allow for the tremendous diversity of agricultural settings to be simplified and codified, without eliminating important differences that need to be taken into account by development practitioners, and would be hierarchical in order to meet the different needs of decision makers at different levels.

Arecent FAO/World Bank study identified generic farming systems categories and, at a lower level of aggregation, broad farming systems, defined as populations of individual farm household systems with broadly similar resources, livelihoods and vulnerabilities, similar opportunities and constraints, and for whom similar development strategies and interventions might be appropriate. The broad farming systems defined in the study encompass many millions of households.

To develop the farming systems knowledge base, the study team blended information from global Geographic Information Systems (GIS), farming system studies, decentralized administrative data and expert knowledge. After the global forces driving change in farming systems were identified, small multidisciplinary teams identified the characteristics and extent of each farming system zone. For this purpose, the teams used the FAO agro-ecological zone (AEZ) maps as a base and added other GIS layers as relevant, including irrigation, environmental constraints, cultivated extent, livestock (in some regions) and human population, In addition, decentralized administrative data from selected units were tabulated within each zone, supplemented by estimates from local farming system studies, where available.

The teams identified the specific trends, emerging constraints and strategic development priorities for each farming system. The results were presented in regional stakeholder consultations and the feedback incorporated in the analysis. In addition, the analysis was extended in two ways: estimating the relative importance of household strategies ("backcasting" from the target of halving the number of poor people by 2015), and consolidating the findings across all regions. The analysis drew on the knowledge of more than 50 experts with practical development experience from a wide variety of disciplines.

There are eight generic farming system categories defined across the developing regions of the world. They are:

* irrigated smallholder;

* wetland rice-based;

* rainfed in humid areas;

* rainfed in steep and highland areas;

* rainfed in dry or cold areas:

* dualisti with both large-scale commercial and

* coastal artisanal fishing mixed; and

* urban-based.

Within these categories, a total of 72 broad farming systems were identified and mapped (varying from 8 to 16 per region). Because equivalent farming systems exist in different regions, the total number of different farming systems at the global level is 44. In each region there are more than a dozen thematic layers which have been overlaid on the farming systems maps--including AEZ, rainfall, environmental constraints, altitude, cultivated extent, livestock population, human population--resulting in more than 100 regional maps. The six regional maps and systems were subsequently consolidated, taking into account the equivalence of some farming systems in different regions, to produce a global map with 44 farming systems (see above). (2)

The value of any new tool or perspective must lie in its ability to provide additional insights to those utilizing it. As the initial study was undertaken at a global level, considering regionally defined farming systems, the focus until recently has been primarily on its application as a framework for large-scale regional analysis and strategy development. Two broad approaches have been used. In the first, data developed from other technical fields has been overlaid on or compared with farming systems occupying the same areas to see possible relationships and extrapolate data across systems. This has been the case, for example, for studies on disease occurrence and carbon sequestration.

Another approach has been to use defined farming systems as guidelines for developing data and approaches, as in the development of a long-term strategy for the management of African forestry resources, looking at land use pressure and predicted intensification in farming systems across the continent, and using these as contributions to identifying different levels of pressure of forest resources in future decades. For both of these approaches, the farming systems perspective can help determine regional priorities for rural investment and research, the identification and dissemination of best practices across a farming system, and for monitoring and impact assessment.

At the regional level, the process of identifying and disseminating best practices can be effectively supported through a knowledge of farming systems, as best practices are normally specific to broadly similar sets of circumstances, such as natural resources, production patterns, market opportunities and population pressure, which are captured by farming system delineations. These best practices may encompass such areas as technology adoption, services (marketing, financial, etc.), and institutional and policy arrangements.

In the longer run, more geographically specific applications of the farming systems perspective will prove to be equally or perhaps even more important, providing insights at sub-regional, national or even sub-national levels. However, in order for the farming systems approach to yield useful results at these finer scales, the delineations of the original study will have to be further refined.

This would require the definition of sub-systems, which not only take greater account of climatic, natural resource and population variations within a single system but also reflect the varying influence of factors that may change across political boundaries, such as government policies and institutional development. (3) In particular, statistical and biophysical data collected in censuses and rural surveys would have to be re-aggregated to reflect farming systems rather than political boundaries. The increasing use of global farming system references for such data will make this increasingly easy to achieve in the future.

Key applications are likely to fall into three broad categories:

* input to strategy development, in a similar manner to those developed on a regional basis;

* identification and development of rural investments; and

* use as tools in developing operational guidelines and support materials.

Examples where improved farming systems data would provide significant benefits include national rural development strategies, such as the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and other documents prepared by the ministries of agriculture, natural resources and similar agencies, as well as guidance and discussion documents prepared by international financing institutions--the World Bank Country Assistance Strategy and the International Fund for Agricultural Development's Country Strategic Opportunities Papers. The identification and design of rural investments comprise a logical next step to these strategy exercises, and provide a similar demand for an improved perspective on patterns of household livelihoods in these areas.

In the absence of well developed national and sub-national farming systems definitions, the range of operational guidelines that may be of value is more difficult to predict. However, it is clear that extension and advisory services could benefit heavily from the ability to target technology menus, technical assistance packages, field trials and similar activities by farming system.

These applications are also likely to be of interest to the private sector and other non-governmental users. But the private sector, including the fertilizer industry, can also draw useful information from the data already available, for example by looking at intensification and diversification levels by system to identify areas of likely future strong demand for fertilizers, Globally, more than 1.5 billion hectares of cultivatable land fall within 15 predicted high-growth systems, encompassing an agricultural population of over 500 million people, while more than 2 billion hectares are classified within low intensification systems. Of the high-growth areas, the majority by area are estimated to fall within Latin America, which accounts for more than half, although the bulk of the population living in high-growth systems, in particular the rice-wheat system, can be found in South Asia.

Comparison of Global Farming Systems Categories

                         Small-      Wetland
Category                 holder      rice-       Rainfed   Rainfed
characteristics          irrigated   based       humid     highland

No. of Farming Systems          3          3         11      10
Total Land (m ha)             219        330      2,013     842
Cultivated Area (m ha)         15        155        160     150
Irrigated Area (m ha)          15         90         17      30
Agric. Population (m)          30        860        400     520
Market Surplus               high     medium     medium     low

                                                 Coastal
                                     Dualistic   arti-
Category                 Rainfed     large/      sanal     Urban
characteristics          dry/cold    small       fishing   based

No. of Farming Systems         19          16         4       6
Total Land (m ha)           3,478       3,116        70    n.a.
Cultivated Area (m ha)        231         414        11    n.a.
Irrigated Area (m ha)          41          36         2    n.a.
Agric. Population (m)         490         190        60      40
Market Surplus                low      medium      high    high

Note: Cultivated area refers to both annual and perennial crops.

Relative Importance of Different Poverty Reduction Strategies by
Farming System

                         Small-      Wetland
Poverty Reduction        holder       rice-      Rainfed     Rainfed
Strategies              irrigated     based       humid      highland

Intensification            3.4         1.7         1.9         0.9
Diversification            2.9         3.4         2.7         2.7
Increased farm size        1.2         0.9         1.7         0.6
Increased off-farm         1.9         2.8         2.2         3.0
income
Exit from agriculture      0.6         1.2         1.4         2.8

                                    Dualistic   Coastal
Poverty Reduction       Rainfed     large/      artisanal    Urban
Strategies              dry/cold    small       fishing      based

Intensification            1.5         2.8         0.7         1.3
Diversification            2.3         2.0         2.5         2.7
Increased farm size        0.9         2.0           0         1.7
Increased off-farm         2.2         1.8         4.2         3.6
income
Exit from agriculture      3.1         1.3         2.6         0.8

Note: The total score for each farming system category equals 10.
Source: John Dixon and Aidan Gulliver

Notes

(1) Important linkages include labour markets, as well as off-farm employment, capital markets, informal safety nets, information exchange and social networks.

(2) Due to its complexity, the map of Farming Systems of Developing Regions in this article is for illustrative purposes only. It should be noted that the farming systems of the OECD countries have not yet been defined or classified in this system (although national classifications do exist). Maps, with their classification keys, are available through the FAO website (http://www.fao.org/ farmingsystems/).

(3) Regional-level farming systems tend to use the predominant or "average" policy and institutional environment in defining system characteristics and trends.

Global Farming Systems as a Tool for food Security

The table below contrast two important attributes of farming systems--the underlying natural resource endowment and access to agricultural services. Average household resource endowments underpin the potential for intensification and diversification. Access to agricultural services influences the different opportunity sets with which farm households are confronted.

Six irrigated and rice-based wetland systems contain an agricultural population of nearly 900 million, with 170 million hectares of cultivated land, of which nearly two thirds is irrigated.

There are three major categories of smallholder rainfed farming system--in humid, highland or dry/cold areas--which together comprise an agricultural population of more than 1.4 billion with some 540 million ha of cultivated land. Dualistic systems comprising farms of mixed size contain a further 200 million farm people, with a cultivated area of 11 million ha. Finally, two further minor categories of smallholder system--four coastal artisanal fishing-mixed and six urban-based systems-contain a combined total of about 100 million people.

Global Farming Systems as Tool for Poverty Reduction

Farm households pursue a number of poverty reduction strategies which differ depending on the farming system and circumstances of the household. The responses of farm households can be categorized into five livelihood strategies:

* intensification of existing farm production patterns;

* diversification of production, including market-oriented, value-added and post-harvest activities;

* increased operated farm, herd or enterprise-size, including consolidation of existing holdings and expansion of the agricultural frontier;

* increased off-farm income to supplement or replace farming activities; and

* exit from agriculture within the farming system, often involving migration from rural areas.

Farm enterprise and income diversification are a common farmer response to changing resource ratios and market access, and many Governments support farm-level diversification There is widespread recognition of the growing importance of off-farm income for smallholder households. What is less known is the contextual analysis of the factors influencing the feasibility of these different strategies for farmers in the different major farming systems of the world.

The table below shows the relative importance of these household strategies, which also correspond to rural development strategies on a wider scale. In aggregate terms, on-farm improvements--intensification, diversification and increased farm size--would be a greater source of poverty reduction than off-farm income and exit from agriculture. Within farm improvement, diversification is a key strategy in a majority of farming systems--benefiting from higher income and expanding local demand for non-traditional and processed agricultural products. Intensification of existing patterns of production will continue to be an important source of farm-income growth in a majority of system categories. A certain proportion of poor farmers or pastoralists will also benefit from increasing farm or herd-size, as agricultural land expands or land rental markets improve, enabling poor urban producers to expand their volume of production.

Apart from farm improvement options, off-farm income already contributes a major part of the household income of poor farmers, and further increases are expected to be the second greatest source of aggregate poverty reduction in future years. The exit of farmers from agriculture within a particular farming system is expected to be an increasingly common phenomenon, and forecast to be of particular importance among smallholders in rainfed highland and dryland areas. Globally, diversification (including on-farm processing and other value added activities) turned out to be a much more important household strategy than intensification. However, the great variability in the relative importance of these strategies across farming systems needs to be recognized by policy makers.

John Dixon and Aidan Gulliver are Senior Officers in the Agricultural Support Systems Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. They are the authors, with David Gibbon, of a comprehensive collaborative study by FAO and the World Bank entitled Farming Systems and Poverty: Improving Farmers' Livelihoods in a Changing World (Rome and Washington, 2001).